Former England captain Kevin Pietersen has criticized Ben Duckett for his weird India series comments before the Ahmedabad One-Day International on Wednesday, February 12.

India sealed the series with a win in Cuttack, ensuring that England has lost all of their ODI series entering the Champions Trophy. Duckett, on the other hand, chose to ignore India's series loss.

Duckett stated that he does not worry about the defeat as long as England wins the Champions Trophy. The statement irritated Pietersen, who retaliated against England's dressing attitude.

Speaking to Star Sports, the former captain expressed his belief that England will flip a switch during the tournament in Pakistan.

"Those words should be frowned upon. Those words would come out of your mouth in a press conference. I sort of understand his reasoning, saying that losing to India would mean absolutely nothing if they win the Champions trophy. And I hope that England can turn on that tap and flick that switch that enables all their batters to get hundreds, whatever they bat, and their bowlers to get wickets whenever they bowl because it's quite a statement of what that dressing room thinks. If they think that just here in India, they can just turn up, it doesn't matter. The results it doesn't matter," said Pietersen.

Pietersen stated that many players in England would love to be in their position and travel to India to play in front of large fans. The former captain stated Duckett's statement was disheartening, adding that the current team does not appear to care about results at the moment.

"You're playing for your country. You've got many cricketers in England who would love to be in your position and would love to come to India, would love to play in front of these crowds. It's stuff that I as an ex-player, wish that I still had. I wish I could still play in front of these crowds. So when you hear statements like that, it just really is disappointing. From England's perspective, my goodness, I just hope there is that switch or that tap of runs that they can just turn on because they don't seem to care," said Pietersen.

Pietersen had also criticized Duckett on X, saying that the batter’s words were pretty poor and should not have been said to begin with.

“Goodness me, it’s pretty poor that Duckett would say that he doesn’t care if England lose today and lose 3-0 to India. Context is important when reading quotes, but those words should NOT have been said! NEVER!”, Pietersen posted on X.

Coming to the third ODI, England captain Jos Buttler won the toss and chose to field first. Jamie Overton was replaced by Tom Banton in the England XI, while Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, and Arshdeep Singh came into the India XI for Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami, and Varun Chakaravarthy.